Parents of children at Little Ted’s have found it difficult to come to terms with the depravity of her crimes.

She appeared to bring up her two teenage daughters well, and photographs of her taken at the nursery show the level of trust people had in her.

These show her posing with cut-up newspaper stuck to her face, and using a plastic cover from a child’s cheese snack to make a pair of false lips.

However, the awful reality was that while she was presenting a fun loving image she was cynically abusing children in her care.

One mother said: “On the face of it she seemed very open about her personal life, maybe too open as we got the impression she was a bit promiscuous. But none of the parents ever suspected she was hiding anything.

“Nothing she did ever led me to suspect she was a paedophile. When I found out what had happened I felt sick. I was so angry I wanted to kill her.”

George had passed the CRB check and worked at Little Ted’s for three years. She holds an NVQ Level 2 in childcare.

She had been employed looking after children since 1998, previously as a classroom assistant at a primary school.

A parent said: “You put your children into nursery expecting them to be safe. She was the last person we expected to be involved in this.”

One of the detectives in the case said: “There was nothing to suggest she would be involved in anything like this. She was clean. She had never done anything before that brought her to anyone’s attention.”

George, an only child, lost her mother Sylvia to breast cancer in 1985. She lived a seemingly innocuous life in a three-bedroom 1980s semi-detached house near the nursery, in the Plymouth suburb of Laira.

Children frequently play in a park opposite the house, which she shared with her husband of 20 years, Andrew George, 41, an engineer for a catering equipment firm, and their two teenage daughters, aged 14 and 15.

The family spent weekends at a caravan in Harlyn Bay, near Padstow, north Cornwall.

Mr George and his daughters were said to be “in pieces” when the crimes were discovered. Mr George has now disowned his wife and is believed to be seeking a divorce. His primary concern has been to minimise the impact on his daughters, friends said.

When asked by The Daily Telegraph about his wife’s crimes, as he left his house to pick up his daughters from school, he declined to comment.

A detective said: “Her (George’s) family are struggling to come to terms with what has happened. The daughters have been left in a terrible place. After all, it is their mum. They are very upset. All are finding it incredibly difficult to understand what she has done.”